The Catholic bishops of Mexico are criticizing a decision by the nation’s highest court to allow killing babies in abortions.
The Mexico Supreme Court has legalized abortion, issuing a landmark decision that will likely pave the way to killing hundreds of thousands of babies in abortions. Mexico’s Supreme Court found that the current abortion ban is unconstitutional, and, strangely, called killing human beings before birth a human right.
“The First Chamber of the Court ruled that the legal system that penalizes abortion in the Federal Criminal Code is unconstitutional, since it violates the human rights of women and people with the capacity to gestate,” it claimed.
Already, 12 states and the Federal District had legalized abortion and this monumental decision now allows abortions nationwide.
The Mexican Bishops’ Conference (CEM) condemned the decision insisting that “all human life, from conception to natural death, has worth regardless of its conditions and eventualities.”
In a statement posted Sept. 7 on X, the bishops addressed the Sept. 6 ruling of the First Chamber of the SCJN, which declared “unconstitutional the legal system that criminalizes abortion in the Federal Penal Code.”
The Mexican bishops pointed out that the Supreme Court’s decision “does not constitute a general declaration of invalidity of the articles that prohibit abortion in the Federal Penal Code, since they remain in force for the rest of the population; nor does it represent an obligation for the [state legislatures] to rush to decriminalize abortion in their respective penal codes.”
“But it does make evident a social reality that we must understand as pastors and attend to with due diligence,” they stated.
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The prelates warned that society cannot “wash its hands by eliminating the weakest, the nascent person.” In addition, they called for “creating the best conditions to welcome life and not throw it away.”
For the CEM, induced abortion, when decriminalized, “normalizes the throwaway culture and leaves the authorities and society as a whole without responsibility for the care and protection of all human life.”
For the bishops, the “conception and birth of a new life represent a good whose value is infinite.” They therefore emphasized that “its care and protection is not a responsibility that concerns only the pregnant woman but society as a whole.”
“It would be deplorable to institutionalize violence against the weak with the permission of the law,” they stressed.
he decision comes after a huge crowd of approximately 25,000 pro-lifers marched through Mexico City earlier this year to request protections for unborn babies.
The Mexico capital legalized first-trimester abortions in 2007 under the Marcelo Law, and March for Life leaders said more than 1 million unborn babies have been aborted since then, according to ACI Prensa, the Spanish sister outlet of the Catholic News Agency,
“This legislation has caused more than a million abortions in Mexico, since the official figures from health centers in Mexico City must be added [to] those performed in private clinics,” the pro-life organization Steps for Life said in a statement.
Many of the marchers carried light blue flags or wore blue clothing, a symbol of life in the pro-life movement in Central and South America.
Jahel Torres Ramírez, spokeswoman for the Mexico City March for Life, said the marchers stopped at the Memory and Tolerance Museum where pro-life leaders placed a wreath in memory of the unborn babies who have been killed and women who have been subjected to violence under the abortion law, according to the report.
Speaking outside the Mexico City Congress, Torres Ramírez urged city lawmakers to “respect the binding international treaties to which Mexico is a party, and promote the culture of life, the culture of an authentic defense of women for a better development of our country.”
“This Mexico of women, this Mexico of life, this Mexico of opportunities, is the Mexico that we are building this day and that we are committed to defending and spreading because Mexico loves life!” she said.
The high court decision comes after pro-abortion protests in Mexico which frequently turn violent with vandalism, fires, threats and other crimes. Roman Catholic churches especially have been targets of pro-abortion violence in recent years.
In 2021, the federal legislature postponed voting on a bill to legalize abortions throughout Mexico, but pro-life advocates expect lawmakers will resurrect it.
Still, support for life is strong in the country. Last October, approximately 1 million pro-lifers marched across Mexico, calling for an end to abortion and respect for all life. The Catholic News Agency reports about 200,000 people participated in Mexico City alone, and hundreds of thousands more joined pro-life rallies Oct. 8 and 9 in all 30 states.
